TradesLandscapers

Run a Landscaping Business That Pays You ProperlyStill on the excavator at five, still quoting sloping blocks at nine. That is a business running you.

This is the business side of landscaping, written for the owner. Licences, charge-out rates, award wages, quoting design and construct work, and building a crew that can run a site without you. Practical training and coaching for Australian and New Zealand landscaping businesses.

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A painted scene of a landscaping crew screeding a bed of sand along a rail, stacked pavers waiting beside them

The week this is about

Running A Landscaping Business Looks Like This.

You quoted the block flat and it was not

The plan looked simple until the bobcat could not get down the side, the fall was worse than it measured, and two days went on barrowing road base by hand. You wear it, because the price was already signed.

Spring buries you, winter empties the account

From August the phone does not stop and you are turning work away. By June the builds have dried up, the maintenance round barely covers wages, and you are paying machine hire on jobs you took just to keep the crew busy.

Every site still needs you standing on it

The set out, the levels, the plant order, the tip run, the client who wants the wall shifted after it is pegged. Nobody else on the crew can make those calls, so you cannot quote, cannot invoice, and cannot take a Friday off.

Another year of this and you are a very good landscaper with a business that cannot run, cannot sell, and cannot give you a week off without losing money.

How we help

Seven Ways We Help Landscapers.

Every one of these is a way landscaping business owners get out from under the business and start running it properly. Start wherever it hurts most.

Training

Landscaper Business Training

Structured training that turns what landscapers know on the tools into a business that runs properly.

Coaching

Landscaper Business Coaching

A coach who has run a trade business, in your corner, holding landscapers to the plan.

Systems

Landscaper Business Systems

The documented process that lets the work happen properly when landscapers are not standing there.

The free app

Landscaper Business App

Lessons, tools and a room full of other owners, free for landscapers with an active ABN.

Marketing and leads

Landscaper Business Marketing

How landscapers get the phone ringing with the jobs worth having, not just the cheap ones.

Pricing and profit

Landscaper Business Pricing

The number landscapers should actually be charging, worked out properly rather than guessed.

Hiring and team

Landscaper Business Hiring

How landscapers build a crew that does it right without being watched.

Worth knowing

Two Things Every Landscaper Running A Business Should Know.

Structural landscaping triggers a licence at a different point in each state: $3,300 in Queensland, $5,000 in New South Wales and $10,000 in Victoria.
Source: QBCC, NSW Fair Trading and the Victorian Building Authority
Retaining walls are the trade's regulatory hotspot: roughly 1 metre triggers council approval, while engineering under AS 4678 is commonly triggered from 800mm.
Source: NCC Part 3.1.2 Earth Retaining Structures, and AS 4678 Earth Retaining Structures
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Questions

Landscapers Ask Us These.

Do I need a licence to run a landscaping business in Australia?
It depends on the state and the value of the structural work. Queensland licenses structural landscaping through the QBCC from $3,300, New South Wales through Fair Trading from $5,000, and Victoria requires registration from $10,000. Western Australia and South Australia run builder registration regimes instead. Get the licence right before you quote, then price the work to cover the compliance it carries.
How high can a retaining wall be before it needs approval and an engineer?
Around 1 metre is the common council approval trigger in Australia, and engineering under AS 4678 typically kicks in from about 800mm, which is why the two get confused on site. In New Zealand, retaining walls are consent exempt up to 1.5 metres depth of ground with no surcharge. Check your council, then quote the engineering and the approval as line items, not as goodwill.
What award covers my landscaping staff and what do I pay an apprentice?
The Gardening and Landscaping Services Award MA000101 covers the trade in Australia. Fair Work refreshes the pay guide each 1 July, so last year's rates are not a defence. An adult apprentice starts at 80% of the Level 4 rate in year one, casuals carry a 25% loading, and the award also sets tool and vehicle allowances. Budget the crew off the current pay guide, not off memory.
Do landscapers have to lodge a TPAR with the ATO?
If you pay subcontractors for building and construction services, yes. The ATO lists landscaping inside the building and construction scope for the Taxable Payments Annual Report, so the excavation, paving and retaining crews you pay have to be reported. Keep subbie payments coded properly through the year and the lodgement takes minutes instead of a weekend.

Other trades

Not Your Trade?

Electricians

You are quoting at 9pm, chasing a builder for progress claims, and still on the tools.

See how we help

Plumbers

You are still taking the 2am blocked drain call, because nobody else in the business can.

See how we help

Builders

Carrying the cost escalation, the unsigned variations and the progress claim nobody has paid.

See how we help

Carpenters

You can frame a house in a week. Getting paid for it takes months of chasing.

See how we help

HVAC Technicians

Flat out through summer, dead through winter, and the licence paperwork never lets up.

See how we help

Roofers

Hail week fills the diary, the wet week empties it, and the margin lands wherever it lands.

See how we help
See all twelve trades

Two Doors. Both Cost Nothing.

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The Crew, daily Q&A, starter courses and your complimentary coaching session. Free with an active ABN. No card, no trial clock.

Turning over $20k a month or more? Thirty minutes, one on one with a trade business coach, on what is capping the business and what to fix first.